If you're new here, why not subscribe to our email updates or follow us on Facebook? You can also add us to your Google Reader. Thanks for visiting! Ive always wondered why my grandparents were so determined that my dad and his siblings grow up as monolingual English speakers rather than speakers of both Italian and English. Its something...

  When my mobile phone was nicked from my bag on the Buenos Aires subway, I was completely oblivious. But now, thinking about it, its quite clear who the culprit was: Katarina Bishop, art thief extraordinaire and heroine of Ally Carters Heist Society'novels. (Why would an art thief steal my phone, you ask? Clearly youve never seen the...

Set in 1941, just after the Pearl Harbour attacks, M T Jeffersons The Victory Dance Murder'couples a small-town setting with life during wartime. Protagonist Kate Fallon has seen her beau off to the front lines, and is doing everything in her power to distract herself from the possibility that he may not return. But with most of the mensfolk shipped off...

There are three distinct types of English-language books that can be found in second-hand bookshops in Buenos Aires. The first is ancient romance titles with Fabio-esque chaps on the front, the second 1970s feminist literature (reviews on some such books to come), and the third cozy mystery novels set in the mid Twentieth Century. How to Marry a Murderer'falls...

Every time I pick up a cozy mystery I know Im in for an educational experience about some odd little hobby or past-time: Ive read about everything from soap making to coffee brewing to art restoration. In Earlene Fowlers Kansas Troubles, the third in her Benni Harper series, the name of the game is quilting. Bet you never thought that a...

Ivy Malone is heading into that period of her life characterised by daily perusals of the obituary column and regular telephone check-ups on her friends to ensure that someone answers on the other end. But addition to the medications and insomnia that are becoming regular features in her world, Ivys found that she also suffers from another condition:...